Benartex & quilter meet up!

I’ve had a blast over the last year pattern testing and beginning designing for Benartex.  Eventually I am going to post linksto the quilts I’ve worked on however their website isn’t working correctly right now.  They know and are working on it.

Last Friday I headed into the City to meet with Mells Testa and Natalya Aikens…more on that later.  I contacted Susan Neill at Benartex and made arrangements to drop off a couple of quilts to them.

Here we are…Susan is in the back, Jenna her assistant is next to me and me.  The building they’re in is where I purchased my wedding dress ooooooh so many years ago…nice memory.

When I walked in David Lochner & Susan were talking so I met them both then had a bit of a quilt reveal in an office.  That part was so fun!

Since I usually send the quilts in I never get to see their reactions.  When quilts come in from designers or testers Susan make them wait to open the boxes until she get there.  I think that’s cool…she loves to be the first to see what gets accomplished with the fabrics!

I’m adding binding to a Benartex quilt here.  It’s one of the two that I delivered.  After I check with Susan I’ll post a couple of other shots of the two I delivered.

90% of the time I attach binding with the zipper foot.  Oh this makes it soooo easy!

Susan & Jenna gave me a tour of the offices and I got to meet a lot of the designers and saw some of the incredible fabrics that are coming down the line!  I can hardly wait they’re so pretty and masculine and feminine and unique and…and…that’s all I can say for now.

I had some time to waste before meeting with Mells and Natalya so I wandered around.  I have to say the City is one of the most interesting places.  The Holiday decor in the shop windows is amazing!  Bright colors and lots of lights.  I stopped in an art store across the street from FIT…they have an eclectic mix of  supplies that the students might need for their classes everything from rotary cutters, threads & mats to paints and pencils.  I picked up some Prismacolor pencils.  I’ve wanted some of these for a while and this was a great opportunity.

I met Mells Testa and Natayla Aikens at a restaurant in the City…yes, I do live in NY City but for anyone in the outer boroughs going to Manhattan is going into the City.   After lunch we headed over to FIT to see Night & Day an exhibit on womens clothing.   The exhibit is open – not behind glass – and to protect the clothing there are alarms that can be tripped if anyone gets too close.  Mells tripped the alarm quite frequently.  She would lean in to get a closer look at something and beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.  Then too her backpack kept leaping out and whacking me…

Natalya had to catch a particular train at Grand Central so we went with her to walk around a holiday gift fair that is hosted there.  My goodness if you need a unique, unusual gift this is the place to go!  Next time I head into the City I’m heading over to one of the shops to get some smoked tea.  The tea has an actual name that when I hear it I know what it is, the gal at the booth knew exactly what I wanted and told me they carry it in their shop.

Have a Merry Christmas all!

Teri

PS I’ll post my teaching schedules at Hartsdale and the quilt cottage this weekend!